Brexit & the Fantasy of the Frictionless Border

英国脱欧

• 批准号: 2275972
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Queen's University Belfast
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2019 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2275972
• 关键词: Brexit; Fantasy; Frictionless; Border

Keeping the Irish border frictionless is the magic trick conjured by UK/EU negotiators to resolve Brexit's complex sovereignty issues. The rabbit in the hat is a technologized border that will maintain EU free movement logics and UK independence, as well as preserving the Good Friday Agreement. This reproduces the Irish border as a dangerous space that only a highly technologized solution can 'correct'. By exploring how the border is imagined, implemented and experienced in professional workplaces and everyday communities, this thesis shows how the life-worlds of the technologized border always disturb and resist the sovereign order. First, I outline the powerful fantasy that technology can produce a frictionless border capable of objectively and efficiently sorting 'safe' mobilities from 'dangerous' ones (Amoore, 2016). Second, I politicize that promise, showing how even the most sophisticated border technology requires fundamental norm/deviant logics which reinscribe the sovereign order. Third, I deconstruct that promise by uncovering multiplicities within the supposedly discrete categories of 'norm' and 'deviant', showing how these multiplicities always threaten to overturn the norm/deviant hierarchy. Fourth, I activate that deconstruction empirically by critically examining the life-cycle of the technologized Irish border: (a) before the border: in technology design (borders as problematic spaces to be solved); (b) inside the border: technology implementation where new devices are tested/used/maintained by border agents; and (c) at the border: where supposed 'frictionlessness' is experienced by local populations who live beside and cross it regularly. I am interested in how that the fantasy is unravelled throughout its life-cycle: when constructed by technology designers, when implemented by border agents, and when experienced by those crossing it regularly. Because it is constituted by a norm-deviant binary, the technologized border reproduces an anachronistic imaginary of UK/EU sovereignty which masks inherent complexity, messiness and contingency (Hansen & Nissenbaum, 2009). Brexit offers a live scenario to critically explore how this fantasy masks the reproduction of new and more pernicious norm/deviant binaries. Research MethodsBuilding from the seminal insights of John Law (2004) and Weber (2016), this thesis develops a methodological framework of queer material-semiotics to critically explore the 'intricate socio-technical realities' (Acuto & Curtis, 2014) intertwining human/non-human actors at key border sites. Sites/Participants Before the Border: constructing the Brexit BorderThrough interviews with UK Border Force design partners, Accenture and thinktank, Reform, I examine how deviance is designed into technology policy. Second, through participant observation at IBMATA, I evaluate the relational networks between sovereign agencies and border technologists. Third, I ask how norm-deviance is designed into fingerprint scanners (Integrated Biometrics) and biometric software (Fujitsu UK). Fourth, given the significance of the UK's AI proposals (Gov.uk, 2018), I will conduct an ethnography at border AI designer SKU Chain. Through interviews with border agents, I evaluate the 'professional unease' (Bigo, 2002) they experience when using technologies to 'sift' risky mobilities. How do HMRC/Irish Revenue agents operationalise technologies to sort 'safe' goods and people? How does technology succeed/fail in enabling the UK/Irish Border Forces to identify problematic mobilities? What border anxieties are managed by An Garda Siochana and the PSNI? At the Border To understand the way users experience the technologized border, I will conduct a series of ethnographies, with business, agri-food, cross-border commuters and arts organisations.

保持爱尔兰边境无摩擦是英国/欧盟谈判代表为解决英国脱欧复杂的主权问题而想出的魔术。戴帽子的兔子是一个技术化的边界，它将维护欧盟自由流动逻辑和英国独立，并维护《耶稣受难日协议》。这将爱尔兰边境再现为一个危险的空间，只有高科技解决方案才能“纠正”。通过探讨边界在专业工作场所和日常社区中如何被想象、实施和体验，本文展示了技术化边界的生活世界如何总是扰乱和抵制主权秩序。 首先，我概述了一个强大的幻想，即技术可以产生无摩擦的边界，能够客观有效地将“安全”交通与“危险”交通分类（Amoore，2016）。其次，我将这一承诺政治化，表明即使是最先进的边境技术也需要基本的规范/异常逻辑来重新规定主权秩序。第三，我通过揭示所谓的“规范”和“异常”的离散类别中的多重性来解构这一承诺，展示这些多重性如何总是威胁到颠覆规范/异常的等级制度。第四，我通过批判性地审视技术化的爱尔兰边界的生命周期，以实证方式激活这种解构：（a）边界之前：在技术设计中（边界作为有待解决的问题空间）； (b) 边境内部：由边境人员测试/使用/维护新设备的技术实施； (c) 边境：居住在边境附近并经常穿越边境的当地居民体验到所谓的“无摩擦”。我感兴趣的是这个幻想是如何在其整个生命周期中被解开的：当由技术设计师构建时，当由边境特工实施时，以及当那些经常穿越它的人经历时。因为它是由偏离规范的二元构成的，所以技术化的边界再现了英国/欧盟主权的不合时宜的想象，掩盖了固有的复杂性、混乱性和偶然性（Hansen & Nissenbaum，2009）。英国脱欧提供了一个真实的场景，批判性地探索这种幻想如何掩盖新的、更有害的规范/异常二元体系的复制。研究方法以约翰·劳（John Law，2004）和韦伯（Weber，2016）的开创性见解为基础，本论文开发了一个酷儿物质符号学的方法论框架，以批判性地探索关键边境地区人类/非人类行为者交织在一起的“复杂的社会技术现实”（Acuto＆Curtis，2014）。边境前的地点/参与者：构建英国脱欧边境通过与英国边境部队设计合作伙伴埃森哲和智囊团 Reform 的访谈，我研究了如何将偏差设计到技术政策中。其次，通过 IBMATA 的参与观察，我评估了主权机构和边境技术专家之间的关系网络。第三，我问如何将规范偏差设计到指纹扫描仪（集成生物识别技术）和生物识别软件（富士通英国）中。第四，鉴于英国人工智能提案的重要性（Gov.uk，2018），我将在边境人工智能设计师 SKU Chain 进行民族志研究。通过与边境人员的访谈，我评估了他们在使用技术“筛选”危险流动时所经历的“职业不安”（Bigo，2002）。英国税务海关总署/爱尔兰税务局如何运用技术对“安全”货物和人员进行分类？技术如何帮助英国/爱尔兰边境部队识别有问题的流动性？ An Garda Siochana 和 PSNI 处理哪些边境问题？在边境 为了了解用户体验技术化边境的方式，我将与商业、农产品、跨境通勤者和艺术组织进行一系列人种学研究。